LoY Zones VERY Nerfed.

[Lilosh]

Ok, you all know me.

I don't cry nerf when I've done two combines after a patch.
I don't cry nerf when I hunt something "common" for 10 minutes and get zero drops.
I don't cry nerf, for the most part, EVER.


LoY zones has been nerfed, and in a BIG way. It was unannounced, and nobody official has confirmed anything.

The spawn rate of named mobs has been turned WAAAY down.
The drop rate of miscellanious loot, and gems have been toned WAY down.

I didn't get this info entirely by myself. I demanded proof. I asked people in Dulak, while I was there for 4 days on a single camp. I asked people who hunt in nadox constantly. I checked with my guild. I asked people in the serverwide channels.

Everywhere, Everyone I talk to has the same story.

Nameds are obnoxiously rare since 05/14/03. Gems are less, and worse.
I was camping the Overseer in Dulak for 3-4 days. Two of which were weekend days(significant playtime), and two were weekdays(3-4 hours).

A level 60 enchanter friend of mine used to live in Nadox. It was quiet, she could Duo with a shaman friend, and she made good money. The gems were nice, and the loot wasnt bad at all.

A level 58 Cleric friend of mine also used to spend a bit of time in Nadox.

Everywhere, Everyone I talk to has the same story.
Instead of blue diamonds and diamonds, people are seeing Fire Opals and Sapphires. In half of the quantity. Blue Diamonds are hellaciously rare.
People are very very upset. I know of one guy who has been in Dulak even longer then I was, and has yet to see ANY of the captians pop.

All that is left is hard hitting mobs, tightly packed, with iffy pathing, that drop minor cash loot. Non stackable swords and shields worth 4p. And some coin on the corpse. Not bad, but not worth porting to stonebrunt, invising through a zone or two, and fighting in.

I hope this was an accident. I hope with all of my heart that this was an unintentional change, and they can fix it. Otherwise, the brand new zones that some of us loved very dearly, will become out of the way spots with semi-decent exp, instead of zones we spend our time in having what passes for fun.


-Lilosh

[Ilona]

I really don't care so much about the cash loot.
What is sad, though, is that we have spent several evenings camping the warehouse in Dulak for the drops for the level 44 druid heal spell, and only got one piece of it.
We did it once before for my bf's druid, got one piece in an evening, got the other piece the next.
This time, it's looking like the druid we're camping it for will get the upgrade (level 51) before we get the last drop for his 44th spell!

I daren't even think what will happen when my own druid gets to 44 *sigh*

[Lilosh]

Aye, the drop rate on the golden emblem from "A storage worker" has been... er.. kinda broken since day one of LoY. Drop rate probably has an wrong decimal place. Not 1%. 0.1%. or some such.

The folks over at EQDruids were looking into it, and said that they mentioned it to the folks at Sony, who were going to "Look into it".


That was the four day camp that almost made me quit the game. :-/

But I got it.

-Lilosh

[Cigarskunk]

If you want to know how long it will take to fix the druid drop, just ask the SKs and necros how long it took them to fix our spells.

[Antoin]

This isn't anything they haven't done before...

The spawn rate of named mobs has been turned WAAAY down.
The drop rate of miscellanious loot, and gems have been toned WAY down.

Gem Encrusted Rings, Kunark.
The Grey's "AE Nerf", Luclin.
Cash Loot, LoY.
Can't think of any in Velious or PoP.

SoE has a history of 'overpacking' an expansion--to reward those people who bought it early, things are a little better than "intended."

A few weeks later, those "glaring oversights" are changed into what they are today.

I did think loot in LoY zones was a bit over the top. Probably why it's been changed...the money was really really good...drum up support and wham, nerfdom.

I also think that the spell drops were unintentionally low, but it also meant you had to spend a lot of time in the new zones.

It's a theory, anyway.

[Cigarskunk]

I'll tell you what - LoY was so poorly pulled off that I've spent almost no time in there at all.

- Greens that hit harder than Velious reds
- Horrific lag for me
- Broken spell quests
- Broken/too rare drop charms
- Bad mob set ups (high add rates/lousy pathing)

I essentually ended up paying $20 for a map and 8 bank slots, although I got my home city taken from me for free atleast. :shock: :evil:

[Lilosh]

I'll tell you what - LoY was so poorly pulled off that I've spent almost no time in there at all.

- Greens that hit harder than Velious reds
- Horrific lag for me
- Broken spell quests
- Broken/too rare drop charms
- Bad mob set ups (high add rates/lousy pathing)

I essentually ended up paying $20 for a map and 8 bank slots, although I got my home city taken from me for free atleast. :shock: :evil:

I love people who claim that they paid $18 and only got one or two things.

I seem to recall you posting about ribbons skillups in tailoring. :-)
I'd wager you've played with the armor dyes.
You might even be wearing a piece or two of the new LoY loot (Since some of it is really nice)
Also, due to LoY, they added the stonebrunt port, which is a zone tradeskillers always loved for pelts. (So I consider that a part of the expansion. Just a part that they released to everyone)
I know you probably dont have a noam, but the new tinkering recipes are nice.
The new robes help out a lot of tailors, and a lot of int casters (My enchanter wears one, and I could have sworn you mentioned having a caster alt)
Illusion potions were also nice (But too expensive for me. *grin*)


So my response to people who claim that they bought extra bank slots, or a map, or what have you is normally to remind them that A LOT was added, and that if they haven't used any of it, then they have nobody to blame but themselves. *grin*

But I loved these zones, and this nerf hurts.

-Lilosh

[Saleani]

I have never seen a charm drop in all the time I spent in dulak and nadox. I figured out what to do about the shaman stoicism quest and helped about 10 folks get that spell (if the bottle was not lore, would be more like 100). Screw folks who want 30k-90kpp for torpor.

Pity that the drop rates are way down, farming greens and light blues for about a week in dulak paid for my drogmor. Yard trash dropping better than seafury loot? Did not seem it was going to last, I expected the bait and switch to happen and took advantage of it while I could. Guess it will be back to seafuries after I finish an annoying camp, I actually need mugs of seafoam and gornit can subsidise my alchemy practice.

Can't say I am surprised that the drop rates were adjusted down. I have spent about the last 120 hours camping stuff for a vampire bane sword (and still have not finished). It seems that Sony does not want employed people to be able to finish any quests: only the unemployed have the time to devote to EverCamp.

[kiztent]

I'm still considering heading back to Dulak - I've been expecting this adjustment in drop rates for a while. Sorry Cigar, but the blues in dulak hit like nuns. Easiest exp I've ever seen. Seb is fun but a huge PITA next to Dulak.

[Eumerin]

No, the mobs in Dulak aren't that big of a problem.

The real problem mobs are those *heavily censored* drogmars. At 51 or 52, I was soloing one of them (make that a very green one of them) and the thing's hp bar was dropping at roughly the same rate mine was. Then I paused to heal myself, was interrupted 2 times, and by the time my 300 point heal finally went off, the drogmar had regenned a higher percentage of its hp bar than I had healed of my own.

Lovely...

[andaerice]

I kind of expected this too. The Shopping List quest in PoP worked the same way. My cleric was doing 2-3 levels a night off that thing until 46, when quest exp was about the same as group exp again. Now it only gives a couple percent of exp at 35.

The LoY dyes are nice, as is the added bank space. My beastlord (my new main) is equiping a couple of the LoY drops that were selling for next to nothing before the market figured out what they were worth.

But yeah, LoY is messed up. I went to Gunthak at 45 with my BST and had a blast on the beach and in the caves, but that's where the fun ended. I moved up to the fort and fought some bugged mobs there, then got frustrated and tried Dulak, which seemed to be full of mobs that can't walk in straight lines.

And last I heard the BST quested spells are still broken (backward actually). It's rather easy in the 40's to pick up the 52 buff spell, but the level 44 DoT is difficult for mid-50's to complete. I don't know what brainiac thought it would be a good idea to make that 52 spell anyway. It's a combo self/pet buff, but BST gets the spells separately anyway, and it doesn't even take less mana than just casting the lvl 39 pet haste and the lvl 53 Talisman. :evil:

[Serenya]

I've not hunted with my primaries since the 5/14 patch, but before it my husband and I had been hunting in Nadox nightly for about a month. When we resume hunting next week I'll watch the spawn rate, I think I have a pretty good feel for the frequency at this point. Our once-a-week group hunted in Dulak as usual on Monday, and things seemed about the same as usual there, but we weren't hunting the boats. Be nice if our druid ever got BOTH emblems for her Healing Water spell, but she turned 51 last week. /sigh

[Railina]

Gem Encrusted Rings, Kunark.
The Grey's "AE Nerf", Luclin.
Cash Loot, LoY.
Can't think of any in Velious or PoP.

Can't think of Windblade?!?!

I wasn't playing when Velious came out, but i'm sure someone who was can tell you what drop rate got nerfed all to heck.

[eqNichola]

I essentually ended up paying $20 for a map and 8 bank slots, although I got my home city taken from me for free atleast. :shock: :evil:

Worth it! And the trolls getting kicked out is just gravy 8)

(sorry I know you're sensitive about that )

[Eumerin]

Re: This isn't anything they haven't done before...

The spawn rate of named mobs has been turned WAAAY down.
The drop rate of miscellanious loot, and gems have been toned WAY down.

Gem Encrusted Rings, Kunark.
The Grey's "AE Nerf", Luclin.
Cash Loot, LoY.
Can't think of any in Velious or PoP.

Vellious had the Cougar Claw Earring. Those things were worth a small fortune when Velious came out due to the lack of good ear objects, even before the focus effect was added.